Student spotlight: Jake Zawlacki

Photo courtesy of Jake Zawlacki

One of Jake Zawlacki’s favorite memories from his time at Stanford was attending a lecture on film theory by P. Adams Sitney, a leading historian of avant-garde cinema. “His self-awareness and light-hearted tone took a dense subject and made it engaging and fun,” Jake says.

In addition to attending academic lectures, Jake also traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he researched the first Kazakh animation film over winter break. He spent two weeks at the State Archive and had the opportunity to interview several contemporary animators about the film.

Jake, who is graduating this spring with a M.A. in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, says his favorite class was Folklore Theory and Slavic Folkloretaught by Gabriella Safran, professor of Slavic languages and literature. “This class took me down an entirely new path of study that helped me think about my thesis project differently.”

While he had experience living in Central Asia prior to coming to Stanford, Jake is grateful to CREEES for exposing him to new global perspectives and furthering his knowledge of the region. “The interdisciplinary nature of the program exposed me to entirely new perspectives I would have never received no matter how long I lived there,” he says. “These new perspectives have helped shape my understanding of the region at large as well as my future academic interests.”

Over the summer, Jake is looking forward to deepening his knowledge of Kazakh through a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Congratulations Jake, and best of luck!


Please join us in congratulating the class of 2019! As the academic year draws to a close, we are highlighting students graduating from across our 14 programs. Click here to view more student spotlights.